Maha is restless for political change: Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar said in new Delhi on Monday that the people of Maharashtra are longing for a 'political change' and want all the Opposition parties to come together for this.

The 82-year-old leader recounted how, in the past few weeks, he has been touring different parts of the state and meeting a lot of people.

"The masses conveyed to me that they are desirous of a change in the state... They want the Opposition parties to unite and achieve this," Pawar told mediapersons in Pune.

He also met the Congress-Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) winner Ravindra Dhangekar from the Kasba Peth seat Assembly bypoll last week -- crumbling the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s 28-year-old bastion.

In this context, Pawar reiterated that the MVA allies -- Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) -- will contest the next elections together in the state.

The NCP chief also admitted that he was 'unsure' that Dhangekar would be able to wrest the Kasba Peth seat from the BJP where the former legislator Girish Bapat had a lot of influence, but the people took note of the MVA candidate's performance in the region.

Pawar also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the concerns voiced by the national Opposition parties in their letter on Sunday.

The eight opposition parties' leaders Sunday shot off a letter to the PM on the misuse of central probe agencies like the ED and CBI against the non-BJP ruled states and interference of governors into routine administration.

Pawar, whose signature is affixed first in the communication to Modi, said that former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has done commendable work in the education and other sectors, but now he is being arrested.

The letter contended that such things suggest that the country had 'transitioned' from being a democracy to an autocracy, how the timing of filing cases against or the arrests of the Opposition leaders 'coincided' with elections proving that they are politically motivated.

Along with Pawar, the much-discussed letter was signed be Telangana CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Bihar Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav, ex-Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, former Jammu & Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and ex-CM of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav.